Crossroads spends $10 million to hit Obama on economy
(CNN) – Crossroads GPS, the conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove, announced Tuesday it was spending nearly $10 million to air an attack ad in ten battleground states painting President Barack Obama's economic policies as failures.
Jonathan Collegio, a spokesman for the group, said the buy was part of a larger $25 million purchase announced last week.
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The minute-long spot, called "Basketball," will air on network television in a host of states up for grabs in November's general election: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The spot is narrated by an actress playing a woman whose adult children have moved back home after not being able to find good paying jobs.
"It's funny, they can't find jobs to get their careers started, and I can't afford to retire. And now we're all living together again," the woman says in the ad.
She says she voted for Obama in 2008 "because he spoke so beautifully."
"He promised change, but things changed for the worse," the woman says.
In a statement, the president of Crossroads GPS said the ad was reflective of problems faced by real Americans.
"This ad drives home the impact President Obama's policies are having on American families and why those policies need to be changed," Steven Law wrote. "We want there to be a serious debate on the real issues people are facing in this country, and this ad expresses the human element of that debate."
Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Obama's re-election, responded to the ad on Tuesday with an ad of its own, as well as a statement calling into question the fictional family portrayed in the Crossroads spot. The Priorities ad featured a woman who worked at Bain-owned American Pad and Paper until being laid off after the company went bankrupt.
"I worked at the plant going on 34 years," the woman in the ad, Loris Huffman, said. "I thought that I was going to retire from there. I had about two and a half years to go. I was suddenly 60 years old. I had no healthcare and that's scary. When Mitt Romney did that, he made me sick."
Bill Burton, the co-founder of Priorities USA, said the spot would run as part of its previously announced $4 million purchase and air in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Burton said the spot was a better reflection of reality than the Crossroads spot.
"They key feature of Karl Rove's ad is using actors to portray a fictional family. In our ads, we portray real life stories of Americans who were devastated by the decisions Mitt Romney made," Burton wrote.
- CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
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the presidents Baine add uses real people the repos hAD to hire an actress. Rove needs to take his 10 million and put it where the sun don't shine. More repo lies and nonsense. Obama 2012
You bet I'm better off than in 2008!. No more Bush, no financial market crashes since Summer of 08, out of Iraq, and many top terrorists have been taken out. We have better standing in the world. Taxes have not increased but decreased for the middle, and upper middle income, no deductions have changed and some are better. It's true, the corporate elite have not seen their wages go down or become static, but things are being put into play to help control unethical behavior at big banks. They need to be held accountable however.
myviewis you sure have it backwards. Only a repo would by your point of view. Obama 2012 Forward.
Anybody ever wonder who really recieves these millions of dollars spent on ads......monies paid to the teleivision and radio stations...all owned by who....??? WAKE UP....!
It’s so obvious the GPS ad is aimed at getting the low brain cell populous all riled up with statements like "because he spoke so beautifully." Aren’t you people tired of being duped? Romney as president will not benefit the average American, it’s not in his nature (see offshore accounts, picture with his homeboys flashing money (one in his teeth), Bain, let the American auto industry die, etc, etc, etc). These are real events, not some fake dramatization created and funded by a group of fat cats that want to stay....FAT.
The upper elite tend to be Democrates – people who believe that they should be in power and the way to do so is to increase the ranks of the poor and then give the poor enough of a handout to remain poor, alive, and voting for Dems.
The Republicans tend to be the working elite – those who got their riches through hard work and sacrifice and want to give others the oppurtunity to be successful as well (and vote Rep).
Again, the question is, do you want the rich people running as the "party of the poor" or the rich people running as the "party of the middleclass and rich"? I would rather vote for the party whose self interest is in seeing me succeed rather than seeing me fail and fall on their support.
People are stating on here that Dems make more money than Reps. If we assume that's true, then what exactly is your point? All you'd be pointing out is that even though Dems have more money, they're still looking out for the little guy even though they're no longer a little guy themselves. You'd also be pointing out that by and large, Reps tend to vote against their own best interests. Again, what's your point?
Democrats are just upset that everyone has realized that Obama has more money than Romney and Democrats make better paychecks than Republicans and Democrats have more college degrees than Republicans making them the wealthy ones.
Dave Jaipersaud
On POINT DAVE!! ...On Point! This is what the POTUS need to be pumping out to the masses.
What recession?
What lack of consumer confidence?
It seems like the SuperPACs have plenty of money and no problem spending it.
Good, spread it around to TV stations in all of America.
TV station owners & employess buy groceries too.
Its not President Obamas policies that have failed. Its the Republicans who keep blocking those policies who are the failures. Vote them out. Things will get better then. Millions of jobs will open up. And America will be rebuilt.
"All you'd be pointing out is that even though Dems have more money, they're still looking out for the little guy even though they're no longer a little guy themselves."
Dude, to understand their argument, you have to get ont he Doublethink Express. In their ideology addled minds, they've rationalized it as a giant conspiracy to keep people poor so they can then buy votes with handouts. It's absurd. What keeps people poor are GOP economic policies that redistribute the wealth upwards and encourage the wealthy to horde, consolidate and grasp for more...policies that ignore the absolute, immutable necessity of high and healthy demand for a healthy economy and growing middle class. Their weapon os mass deception is to then turn around and blame the poor for being lazy, money-grubbing, welfare queens right after they're done blaming Dems in power for "keeping them poor on purpose." Two neatly contradictory positions they choose from whenever convenient to the argument at hand.
My point is that Democrats ran as the party of the poor when in reality they ran Wall Street, the very thing they so criticize.
Hmmm. Sounds like this is the year when we find out how much money it takes to BUY a Presidential Election.
Mitt Romney only helps corporations with his business experience. President Obamas policies will help to rebuild America while providing good jobs in infrastructure, education, research and technology, first responders, construction, healthcare, as well as tons of domestic jobs. President Obama is a warrior for the middleclass and poor. Romney always was about investment and creating wealth at anyones expense cause he would get paid if they lost their job or not. He did not care.
Oakspar
The Republicans tend to be the working elite – those who got their riches through hard work and sacrifice and want to give others the oppurtunity to be successful as well (and vote Rep).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Er, not so much. Red states are "taker" states, meaning they take in far more Federal dollars than they pay in. Blue states are "giver" states, meaning they take in far few Federal dollars than they pay in. Thanks for playing tho!